I went to get my motorcycle from a nearby garage and greeted the attendant: 'Good morning...' He didn't reply. The building's doorman and the grocer do the same, though the latter two sometimes respond with strained letters, like a teacher drilling a lesson into a student: 'Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.' I never tired of greeting the attendant morning and evening. I did it day after day, knowing he wouldn't reply. I only stopped when I heard him say to a man sitting next to him: 'Does he think we're Christians or what?!' This sentence opened a door for me to understand the 'Egyptian condition' in a new way, when I had thought I already understood it.

• Publishing House: Dar Madarek for Publishing
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Number of Pages: 160
• ISBN: 9786144298732